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PBA 069b
Janis follows Aziz into the hall. 11:12:36 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari stops for a minute to lean on the wall 11:12:49 PM Janis: So...that...went well. 11:13:12 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Hopefully in time she can learn to forgive me for not being a slave trader she can slam into a wall. 11:13:28 PM Janis: Wynn hates having a battle she can't fight. 11:13:58 PM Janis: In the end, she knows we made a good call. 11:14:48 PM Aziz al-Awlari: It doesn't excuse her actions tonight. 11:15:53 PM | Edited 11:16:51 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Val sank over half a dozen thousand gold of his own coffers into saving those people. I sank my first mortgage payment on the shop into saving the wizard. Money may mean nothing on the corridors of this ship, but it still meant sacrificing... 11:16:10 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari sighs. "It meant sacrificing the idea of going home and having everything go back to normal when it's over." 11:16:44 PM Janis: ...well...some of it was mine, actually. 11:17:12 PM Janis: And, she'll realize that, eventually. 11:18:33 PM Aziz al-Awlari: I'll never get an apology for it, though. I'll have to be the bigger man and just accept that she can treat me, treat all of us, like that whenever she wants, and never be held accountable for it. Because she's got the big stick and the emotional baggage. 11:18:47 PM Aziz al-Awlari: And the only tool I have is the ability to walk away. 11:19:05 PM Janis: ................ 11:20:08 PM Janis: So...how are things with Marti? 11:20:26 PM Aziz al-Awlari: She's finally able to sleep. That's a nice change. 11:20:53 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari chuckles dryly. "She didn't understand the purpose of a bed." 11:21:06 PM Janis: Janis smiles 11:22:30 PM Aziz al-Awlari: I ended up equating it with a hoard made of softer valuables... which in all honesty it is. Silks aren't cheap, metal springs are an artisan's masterwork, and goose down is worth its weight in gold in most countries. But then she refused to "steal someone else's hoard." 11:23:06 PM Aziz al-Awlari: So she ended up sharing mine. She's... surprisingly cuddly. But I couldn't help feeling like I was taking advantage of the situation somehow. 11:23:14 PM Janis: .............. 11:23:25 PM Aziz al-Awlari: We didn't do anything, don't look at me like that. 11:23:44 PM Janis: Uh huh. 11:24:28 PM Janis: Janis is still smiling 11:24:53 PM Aziz al-Awlari: It just... it was nice, you know? I could almost pretend it was normal. Two people sharing a bed in a comfortable room. The sound of her breathing, the rise and fall of the blankets, the way she'd curl in closer if I moved at all. 11:25:11 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari actually seems relatively happy for the first time in recorded memory. 11:25:43 PM Janis: I...don't actually know...obviously. But good for you. I'm glad you're happy. 11:27:50 PM Aziz al-Awlari: I just... can't shake the feeling I was taking advantage of the situation somehow. She couldn't sleep if she felt guilty about it, and I explained to her copiously that I didn't "want an egg," but... I don't know. Should I feel guilty for enjoying it so much? 11:28:37 PM Janis: ......dude...I'm 15...which to me is basically 11.... 11:28:49 PM Aziz al-Awlari: I... right. I keep forgetting. 11:28:51 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari introduces his face to his palm. They get along just fine. 11:29:25 PM Janis: But...if you feel good, and Marti feels good, and you're not...making an egg... 11:29:34 PM Aziz al-Awlari: So! How about those explosions. 11:29:50 PM Janis: They're fun. Sometimes. 11:29:57 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Fire is my favorite flavor of fire. 11:30:12 PM Aziz al-Awlari: But seriously though. I've been doing some more research on the spell fusion thingit. 11:30:24 PM Janis: Really?!? What did you find out? 11:31:41 PM Aziz al-Awlari: That it's definitely not something to wear all the time. If you wear it for longer than a minute or two at a time, the Cursed spell will definitely start to resurge. But if you're only ever wearing it for a minute at a time, it won't be able to draw enough energy to be any issue at all. 11:31:52 PM Aziz al-Awlari: So definitely only in combat. 11:32:15 PM Janis: Janis nods "right" 11:32:28 PM Janis: So, whatever we put it on, it has to be simple to take on and off. 11:32:33 PM Aziz al-Awlari: And I'll want to examine it once a week or so, just to make sure the Curse isn't socking energy away somewhere in the device. These old spells tend to be... smarter than they have a right to be. 11:34:14 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Modern spells are very utilitarian, only built to do one thing at a time. The older spells, the ones that get put into Cursed Items especially, are... not so much. They're from a more primitive time, when the only magic we knew of was the magic of Life - the Divine Enchantment that holds the animus to the corpus, the spirit to the flesh. Most complex spells were built using what we could reverse-engineer from life itself, and our understanding was pretty poor. 11:34:51 PM Aziz al-Awlari: As a result, spells tended to have extra parts they didn't need... and those parts could talk to each other, interact in unintended ways. 11:35:47 PM Aziz al-Awlari: To go back to our old analogy, imagine you wanted to catch a fish. Nowadays you'd get a fishing rod, a lifeless device with one purpose. In the olden days they'd basically go grab a bear, lead it to a stream, and try to take the fish from it after the bear caught them. 11:36:13 PM Janis: Ok...but it could work, right? 11:36:30 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Right. Just... be careful. 11:36:37 PM Janis: Janis nods 11:37:07 PM Janis: Ok, so, an archery brace might be out. That's too complicated to take on and off in combat. 11:38:21 PM Janis: Well, we can figure that out some other time. 11:39:35 PM Aziz al-Awlari: It could be something easy, like a hat or bracelet. The hat you could literally just shrug off your head in a pinch. 11:39:45 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Or if you lost control, someone could knock it off of you. 11:40:01 PM Janis: Yeah, but in battle, it could also just be knocked off. 11:40:07 PM Aziz al-Awlari: That's the risk, aye. 11:40:27 PM Janis: ...maybe a ring... 11:40:52 PM Janis: ((Nothing bad has ever come from a cursed ring, right?)) 11:40:56 PM Aziz al-Awlari: A ring would be hard to take off if your finger swelled. A bracelet is just a single clasp. 11:41:05 PM Janis: Right. 11:41:28 PM Janis: That might work better. 11:41:39 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Yeah... especially since you're an archer and all. 11:41:51 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Arrows and bowstrings cause finger swellings. 11:42:16 PM Janis: Bracelet seems like the best method. 11:42:36 PM Janis: Easy on, easy off. And can be removed fairly easily by someone else if need be. 11:42:40 PM Aziz al-Awlari: I'll get to work on making it, then. 11:42:45 PM Janis: Right. 11:43:05 PM Aziz al-Awlari: I think I'm going back to sleep, though. It's late. 11:43:10 PM Aziz al-Awlari: You should do the same. 11:43:22 PM Janis: Maybe. 11:43:35 PM Janis: I'll talk to you tomorrow, though. 11:43:37 PM Janis: Thanks. 11:43:42 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Yep. No worries. 11:43:49 PM Aziz al-Awlari: Aziz al-Awlari totters back off to bed 11:44:09 PM Janis: Janis realizes she never actually got that snack she wanted and returns to the galley.